Wednesday, December 02, 2009

ONE-WAY EVERY 10 MINUTES

ONE-WAY EVERY 10 MINUTESOn Challaghatta Main Road, a shortcut for many techies to reach their offices at Embassy Golf Links Business Park, motorists on each direction take turns to pass through itMANASI PARESH KUMAR

It isn’t a galli. It isn’t a bylane either. Well, this road, which goes by the name Challaghatta Main Road, is indeed a main road. But there is one problem: Vehicles are allowed in only one direction at a time, or every 10 minutes. Techies describe this 40-feetwide road a “living hell” since it is a twoway and even buses pass through it. Challaghatta Main Road is a popular shortcut with the techies who work in the sprawling Embassy Golf Links Business Park. More than 30 firms have their offices and about 20,000 people have their cubicles here. Those who travel on Old Airport Road, Sarjapur Road and Old Madras Road join the road via the Wind Tunnel Road to avoid the dense traffic at Intermediate Road from the Domlur junction flyover. It also helps them save time. HONEY, I SHRUNK IT! A drive through the road tells you their viewpoint is too subjective. Gorges and craters make up most of the road. As if the problems were not big enough, the BWSSB dug up the road to lay new sanitary lines and forgot to close the road. The new line was to carry a bulk of the drain water to the Nagasandra treatment plant through Challaghatta. The situation is now so bad the road has shrunk to less than four feet at one point. Krishna Murthy N R, the traffic constable who mans the stretch almost every day, has no option but to allow vehicles coming from one direction at a time. “We try and keep the waiting time to less than 10 minutes, but during the peak hours, it gets extended. On an average, we have a stop for about 15 minutes,” he says. The road turns into a virtual hell when it rains. “We never know when the car tyres would get stuck in the slush,” said Ranjith, a logistics executive. OFFICIAL APATHY The road borders the compound wall of the Karnataka Golf Association, where top bureaucrats of the city come to play. From the top brass of the police department and the BBMP to the political might, almost everyone is a member here and are often found enjoying a game of golf on Sundays. Yet, they seem to be blind to the road and its problems. BBMP Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena and Higher Education Minister Aravind Limbavali visited the spot and even promised the road would be set right within a week. Two and a half months and counting, there has been no action. BBMP engineers of the area too are clueless. Ramakrishna, Assistant Executive Engineer, Marathahalli, under whose jurisdiction the road falls, was not aware of any such idea of upgrading the road. “We don’t have anything in the offing just yet,” was his reply. ROAD IN RUINS

Sanjay Somani, employee of Goldman Sachs, travels from Old Madras Road to Embassy Golf Links Business Park I have been travelling on this stretch for the last four years now and have never once seen it getting asphalted.Which are the potholes that the BBMP has been claiming to fill up? I guess they have no idea how to count them here because you can’t differentiate between the road and a pothole. Four months ago, someone dug up a part of the already narrow road to lay some pipes. But that gaping hole has been left unattended.

Shishir Singh, a techie, travels from Sarjapur Road to Embassy Golf Links Business Park Imagine taking about one and a half hours to clear a 200-metre stretch.That is what happens to me quite often on this stretch -give or take about 15 minutes. I take this road to avoid the traffic on Intermediate Ring Road, but it is not worth it.You have buses too going on this road, where a car and twowheeler side by side take up the entire road. I don’t know the reason for the delay in repairing the road because I remember Bharat Lal Meena and Aravind Limbavali visiting the spot and assuring that the work will be started in a week.That was three months ago.

Rashmi Jain, employee of Yahoo India, travels from Challaghatta to Embassy Golf Links Business Park You should try travelling on this road during rains. If you make it without slipping and hurting yourself, then count that as your lucky day. I came to live in Challaghatta because it is closer to office and would cut down my travel time. Now, I question that wisdom.There is a traffic constable who allows traffic on one side only at a time because there is no space for two-way traffic.You are stuck for close to 20 minutes to cross less than 100 metres.

Aloka Mitra, employee of a media house, travels from Challaghatta to Koramangala A car broke down on the road once and that was a real nightmare.Traffic on both sides had no choice but to stay where it was.We had to wait till the car was towed away. Don’t ask me how long that took, because I stopped looking at my watch after a point. My problem is I don’t even have another road to go through.

The pit dug up for laying pipes adjacent to the road. (Inset) Krishna Murthy, cop who mans traffic there

Vehicles move at a snail’s pace one behind the other on the Challaghatta Main Road

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Point to Ponder

What do you call a congenial, captivating, cosmopolitan confluence of software and shopping malls, electronics and environment friendliness, salubrious climate and
cleanliness, modern outlook and old worldliness, precision engineering and pubs? You call it India's best city for business. It is also called Bangalore.
Opening lines of Business Today's survey on India's best cities for business, December 1998. Does Bangalore resemble any of this today?

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